The Enrique Guzman y Valle University, widely known as “La Cantuta,” was occupied by the
Peruvian army in May, 1991 as part of President Fujimori’s effort to combat Shining Path. Located
just east of Lima, La Cantuta is the country’s leading
teachers’ college. The security forces had long sus-
pected it of being a guerrilla training ground.
A military base was established on campus on May
21, 1991. For a time, the university was closed, as sol- diers set up more permanent lodgings and vigilance
points on campus. When classes resumed, strict con-
trols were put on student movement in and out of
campus. Soldiers were posted as guards at key points
and patrolled constantly, especially at night during the eight-hour curfew beginning at 10 p.m. Six months later, the government legalized the
incursion of the security forces onto formerly autonomous university campuses with Decree Law 726. The law authorized the armed forces to occupy campuses “when they are made aware that terrorist elements or groups disturb peace and internal
order.” Along with these public measures, the govern-
ment apparently also authorized military intelli-
gence to infiltrate the student body in search of
Shining Path sympathizers. That infiltration alleged-
ly led to the events of July 18, 1992, a little over a
year after the army’s arrival.
ln the early hours of that day, eyewitnesses say that about 30 hooded gunmen burst into the male stu-
dent dormitory at La Cantuta and forced the 60 stu- dents inside into the hallway with threats and blows.
The students were forced to lie face down on the
floor. One of the armed men went through the group
with a list in hand, ordering that certain students be
pulled out. A similiar operation took place in the
female student dormitory. The gunmen then pro-
ceeded to detain Hugo Munioz in the professors’ res-
idence in front of his wife and a neighboring couple.
Adapted from “Peru: Anatomy of a Cover Uo, The
Disappearances at La Cantuta” (September 1993) and’ “Per u
The Two Faces of Justice” July 1995), published by Human
Rights WatchlAmericas To obtain the complete reports,
contact Human Right Watch at (212) 986-1980
Soldiers blindfolded the detainees and forced
them into pick-up trucks with smoked-glass win-
dows. All the vehicles bore license plates with the
initials KQ, used exclusively by military intelligence.
Before leaving, soldiers tied the remaining students
to their beds and left guards beside them. The entire operation took about two hours. It was carried out with the acquiescence-and, at some
moments, the active support-of the military forces occupying the campus. At no point did the plain
“clothes men identify themselves or explain why they were seizing the students.
The army, police and the special anti-terrorist
police unit each denied having detained the nine students and the professor when relatives ques-
tioned them that morning. The National
Intelligence Service (SIN) suggested to the press, in a thesis echoed by pro-government legislators, that
guerrillas had staged a “self-kidnapping.” For the
public and the victims’ families, all ten had vanished.
E yewitness testimony and information leaked by
sources inside the military identified the soldiers
as members of the “Colina Group,” an elite death
squad acting under the direct orders of high-level
government officials including Gen. Nicolas Hermoza, Commander-in-Chief of the army, and Vladimiro Montesinos, de facto head of the SIN.
After government attempts to discredit the
charges, the dissident officer group “Sleeping Lion” in July, 1993 leaked a map detailing where the bod-
ies were buried. Despite an active and at times darkly comical cover-up attempt, the government
was forced to acknowledge possible military involvement after family members identified some
of the remains.
Gen. Hermoza insisted that any investigation and
trial belonged under military jurisdiction-the ulti- mate guarantor of human rights violators’ impunity.
While arguing to the press that the soldiers had
acted of their own volition, albeit with military weapons, vehicles and logistical support, Hermoza
simultaneously clung to the completely contradicto-
ry assertion that the killings were acts of service and
therefore subject to military discipline rather than civilian prosecution.
Eyewitness
testimony identified
the soldiers as
members of the
“Colina Group,” an
elite death squad
acting under the
direct orders of
high-level
government
officials.
It was up to Peru’s
Supreme Court to
decide jurisdiction.
While the Court has
almost always ruled in
favor of the military in
disputes over jurisdiction,
particularly in
human rights cases, the
high profile of the La
Cantuta disappearances
put tremendous pressure
on the judges to
vote for civilian jurisdiction.
As the alternate
judge deliberated over
how to cast his tiebreaking
vote, the
Congress stealthfully
passed in the wee hours
of the morning a bill
that changed voting procedures in such a way that
ensured military jurisdiction in the La Cantuta case.
After 13 days reviewing the 2,000-page case, the
military court convicted ten of the 12 soldiers,
imposing sentences of one to 20 years. The military
court ruled out an investigation of the top-ranking
officers suspected of ordering the killings. At the
last minute, the more serious sentences were
changed to allow the convicts to serve their time in
military installations without dismissing them from
active service or cutting their pay or benefits. Later
press reports revealed that the imprisoned soldiers
enjoyed the comforts of tennis courts, cellular telephones,
color televisions, a bar, and regular visits
from family members and the army paymaster who
cashed their monthly checks, augmented by occasional
bonuses, in dollars.
In June, 1995, the Peruvian Congress passed one
of the most sweeping amnesty laws in the hemisphere.
The law gives a blanket amnesty to members
of the security forces linked to, investigated
for, or convicted of human rights crimes from May,
1980 to the present. Among the first to walk free
were the eight men remaining in prison for the La
Cantuta murders.
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